{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,4]],"date-time":"2026-05-04T00:42:51Z","timestamp":1777855371178,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2011,5,1]],"date-time":"2011-05-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1304208000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["J Med Biogr"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2011,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>A family of Watkins doctors originating in the Northamptonshire town of Towcester included 13 doctors in seven generations during 250 years. In each generation there were between one and four doctors. Three doctors involved themselves actively in innovative yet controversial practises, described in their own writings and publications. Timothy Watkins' (1755\u20131834) own handwritten lecture notes describe the problems affecting an 18th-century man-midwife, while his accounts book provides insights into his lifestyle. The concept of the waterborne spread of cholera during the 1854 epidemic in Towcester is described by Robert Webb Watkins (1822\u20131901) during the same year as the observations made by John Snow (1813\u201358). John Webb Watkins (1833\u20131903) in his MD thesis (1856) describes his use of chloroform in labour in Towcester during the early 1850s, followed by self-experimentation with chloroform administered to him between 40 and 50 times by Sir James Young Simpson (1811\u201370) in Edinburgh. Descriptions of the two 19th-century general practitioners offer insights into the exemplary extent of their civic involvement in all walks of local community life, and of their family ties.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1258\/jmb.2010.010060","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,5,10]],"date-time":"2011-05-10T16:00:07Z","timestamp":1305043207000},"page":"56-62","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A family of doctors over 250 years: innovation and controversy"],"prefix":"10.1258","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Peter J","family":"Watkins","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2011,5,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C1","volume-title":"Towcester: The Story of an English Country Town","author":"Sunderland J","year":"1995"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C2","volume-title":"William Hunter and the 18th Century Medical World","author":"Wilson A","year":"1985"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C3","unstructured":"WallisPJ, WallisRV. Eighteenth Century Medics. Project for historical bibliography, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1988"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/jhmas\/40.3.327"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C5","volume-title":"Young's Lectures on Midwifery","author":"Watkins T"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C6","volume-title":"Personal Accounts Book","author":"Watkins T"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C7","unstructured":"FlindersM. Grateful to Providence. The Diary and Accounts of Matthew Flinders, Surgeon, Apothecary and Man-Midwife, 1775\u20131802. Lincoln: Lincoln Record Society, 2007;1:1775\u201384"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C8","unstructured":"PorterR. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind. London: Harper Collins, 1997:274\u20137"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1258\/jrsm.2008.08k008"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1258\/jrsm.2008.080264"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C11","unstructured":"Towcester families: See www.worldconnect.rootsweb.com\/cgi-bin\/igm.cgi?db=towcester (last accessed 11 October 2010)"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C12","unstructured":"National Archive, Kew, reference 1\/07\/01036174F"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.2.251.414"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.2.252.445"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.1.283.588"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C16","unstructured":"Northampton Mercury\n                      , 11 September 1854"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C17","unstructured":"Northampton Mercury\n                      , 26 August 1854"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C18","unstructured":"PorterR. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind. London: Harper Collins, 1997:412\u20133"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C19","unstructured":"Northampton Mercury\n                      , 1 November 1873"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C20","unstructured":"Northampton Herald\n                      , 22 January 1876"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C21","unstructured":"Northampton Herald\n                      , 7 October 1893"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"447","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.2.252.447","volume":"2","author":"Editorial","year":"1865","journal-title":"British Medical Journal"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C23","volume-title":"The Greatest Benefit to Mankind","author":"Porter R","year":"1997"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(08)60978-2"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C25","unstructured":"Medical Directory\n                      . Entries between 1863 and 65 (\u2018prev. personal surgeon to Admiral Lord Lyons\u2019)"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C26","unstructured":"Senatus minute, St Andrews University, October 1862"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C27","volume-title":"The Greatest Benefit to Mankind","author":"Porter R","year":"1997"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780192805867.001.0001","volume-title":"Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaesthetics Changed the World","author":"Snow S","year":"2008"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C29","unstructured":"WatkinsJW. A dissertation upon anaesthesia in natural and morbid parturition. MD Edinburgh, 1856"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C30","unstructured":"Obituary: Robert Webb Watkins.\n                      Northampton Mercury\n                      , 24 May 1901"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C31","unstructured":"Northampton Herald\n                      , 2 September 1871"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C32","unstructured":"Northampton Herald\n                      , 23 April 1898"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C33","unstructured":"St Lawrence's Church records, Towcester, 1837"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C34","unstructured":"Obituary: Robert Webb Watkins.\n                      Northampton Daily Chronicle\n                      , May 1901"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C35","unstructured":"Obituary: Death of Dr JW Watkins.\n                      The Earlestown Guardian\n                      , 6 February 1903"},{"key":"bibr-JMB-10-60C36","unstructured":"Royal College of Physicians 2010. 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